Expressing agreement and disagreement in English during a conversation is something that many Spanish-speakers have trouble with. Today we’re going to practice simple and effective ways to help you agree or disagree with others’ ideas and opinions.

You: “Really? SO DO I! They have great English teachers and wonderful customer service.”

OK friends, we have just used the formula (SO +AUXILIARY VERB + SUBJECT) to express that you also like studying English at BBE. This formula is great because it can be used with many different auxiliary verbs to express agreement in different context. Let’s look at some examples:

Me: “I would love to speak English fluently someday.”

You:”SO WOULD I. My boss would definitely pay me more money. Did you know that Juan is studying at BBE to improve his English?”

Me: “Yes, SO IS MARIANA. They say that’s the best way to learn English in Bogotá.”

Do you see how this formula can be used with many different auxiliary verbs to express agreement? Think of some other examples and write them down.

OK, to express our disagreement all we have to do is make a small change to the formula: (NEITHER + AUXILIARY VERB + SUBJECT)

Me: “I don’t think that we can learn English without a good teacher.”

You:”NEITHER DO I. We should try to find private English lessons in Bogota.”

Just like with the SO DO I formula, the NEITHER DO I formula can be changed to use different auxiliary verbs and subjects. Practice writing some sentences using both formulas. You can also watch this video from YouTube to see many more ways to use the formulas we’ve discussed today.